It’s possible to love fashion, shop responsibly and be kinder to the planet, says sustainability expert Dana Thomas …
Who doesn’t want a new frock for an evening out on the town? But each time we cave into that desire, and shop in stores instead of our closets, we unwittingly contribute to the devastatingly destructive impact fashion has on the planet and humanity. Allow me to explain. Today, the fashion industry churns out 100 billion items a year. Only 80 billion are sold; 20 per cent are destroyed – by being burned, shredded, or sent to landfill – before ever hitting the retail floor. In 2021, investigative reporters found that 42,000 tons of unsold clothes have been shipped to the Atacama Desert in Chile annually for years, creating textile ‘dunes’ in the once-pristine environment.
All this overproduction pushes us to buy more: We buy five times more fashion than we did a generation ago. We are able to do this because clothes have never been cheaper than they are today: We pay one-fifth the amount for a fashion item on average than we did a generation ago.
Why? First, because there is little regulation in many of the producing countries, 98 per cent of garment workers do not earn a living wage. Many of them earn half a living wage. When I visited Bangladesh for my book Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, that meant $68 a month, trapping workers in poverty. And second, because two-thirds of our clothes are made of petroleumbased fabrics, such as polyester and nylon, which cost a fraction of natural fibres like cotton, wool, and cashmere.
Having access to cheap, abundant clothes pushes us to burn through them faster: Today, the average garment is worn only seven times before it is thrown away. Thus the perilous fashion-haul trend: We over-shop and over-buy because we can, because shopping is so easy, so cheap, and so available. And because it’s fun. The dopamine surge – known in the business as “the thrill at the till” – is real, and addictive.
“All this overproduction pushes us to buy more: We buy five times more fashion than we did a generation ago.”
What is the impact of such a system? The World Bank estimates that fashion is responsible for nearly 20 per cent of all industrial water pollution annually, and experts believe it releases ten per cent of the carbon emissions in our air. The fashion industry devours one-fourth of chemicals produced worldwide. Petroleum-based synthetic materials – plastic, essentially – never biodegrade, and release millions of plastic microfi bres when washed. Roughly 92 million tons of discarded apparel end up in landfills each year. By 2030, it will be 134 million tons. Oxfam reports that at least 70 per cent of garments donated to charity in Europe and the US end up in Africa – often dumped in empty lots, or in the ocean, where they wash up on beaches, like a fabric tide.
“Textiles have, on average, the fourth biggest impact on the environment and climate change from a consumption perspective,” says Lars Fogh Mortensen, circular economy and textiles expert at the European Environment Agency. “Only food, housing, and mobility have higher impacts.”
That all sounds rather depressing, I know. But it is possible to be a responsible fashion consumer – one who has less negative impact, and perhaps even a positive impact, on the planet and humanity.
The easiest way to achieve this is to buy less, buy better. How so? By adopting the four Rs: Rewear, Repair, Rent, Resale. Rewear is exactly that. Shop your closet, and wear things you love in a new way. Like actress Cate Blanchett, who regularly pulls old clothes from her wardrobe to wear on the red carpet – she’ll pair the look with a new item, or have a tailor tweak it to freshen it up. And Catherine, Princess of Wales, who practices what I call the Royal Rewear: restyling some of her classic looks with a new hat, or a brooch, or with pants instead of a skirt. How many times she has worn her pine-green Alexander McQueen coat, I do not know. Rewearing gives you a talking point – when complimented, you can recount the outfit’s history. And it gives you memories. Our clothes can be like scrapbooks – a way to tell our life stories.
Repair is key to keeping clothes going – meaning out of landfill – longer, and helps keep artisans employed. Right now, I have a seamstress repairing armloads of my knitwear that was attacked by moths. Renting, especially for formal occasions, is a great way to dress up without blowing your budget. Rent a recent designer gown for €300 – the chic original, rather than the polyester knock-off. Resale – of things you no longer want, and things you do want but couldn’t afford the first time around, keeps items in circulation and out of the dump. When you do need something new, opt for quality items made from natural fibres, such as organic cotton, wool, linen, silk, and cashmere that is responsibly sourced – they are better for the environment in myriad ways.
“It is absolutely possible to be a responsible fashion consumer. We have the tools. Now we have to use them wisely.”
Organic cotton, for example, uses vastly less water when farmed than conventional cotton, and it is not treated with pesticides, herbicides, or defoliants, which means it is less harmful to biodiversity, the farmers working the land, and the wearer. Linen is made of flax, which is rain-fed, therefore requires no irrigation, leaving aquifers intact. Responsibly sourced wool and cashmere ensure respectful treatment of both the animals and the land on which they graze. Another way to be more responsible fashion is to seek out products that are made from biomaterials, such as leather-like material made from leftovers from the wine industry (“grape leather”), or the orange juice industry (“orange silk”), or mycelium, which is the root systems of mushrooms.
British designer Stella McCartney is a champion of biomaterials. For her fall-winter 2024-2025 show in Paris, she included a trench and pencil skirt in what appeared to be mocha crocodile skin. In fact, they were made from Uppeal, a vegan alternative made from waste from the Italian apple juice and jam industries. Other leather-like biomaterials she uses include Vegea, made from winery waste, and Mirum, made from natural rubber and agriculture residue. Luckily there are many Irish designers and retailers who provide opportunites to shop responsibly.
In short, it is absolutely possible to be a responsible fashion consumer. We have the tools. Now we have to use them wisely.
